Supreme Court vise closes on Grassley

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa listens to a question from an audience member during a town hall meeting at the Ocheyedan Senior Center, Monday, March 28, 2016, in Ocheyedan, Iowa. | AP

ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa — Sen. Chuck Grassley had just launched his second town hall meeting of the day when a woman posed — at least for Republicans — a worst-case scenario: What if Hillary Clinton wins in November and nominates someone more liberal than Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court?

Grassley, standing before more than 120 people in this northwest Iowa town, was unfazed.

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“We know that this hearing is going to be strictly a political thing,” Grassley said Monday in the basement of a public library here in conservative Lyon County, where more than 3 in 4 voters chose Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012. “So why spend your time on strictly political stuff — theater — that isn’t going to produce anything?”

As the national battle rages over whether to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia this year, no one is under heavier scrutiny or facing more pressure back home than Grassley, a one-time farmer and sheet metal worker who was first sworn in to the Senate the same month that Ronald Reagan became president.

Democrats are trying to wear down Senate Republicans across the country, but their prime target is Grassley. On Monday, Hillary Clinton, singled out the Judiciary Committee chairman in a major speech, saying he should “step up and do his job. He should hold a hearing, and he should schedule it as soon as the Senate returns from recess.”

The 82-year-old Grassley, a Senate institutionalist to the core, holds the key to such a confirmation hearing. Getting him to relent would be the biggest prize for Democrats, short of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell himself.

But in a series of public appearances across northwest Iowa on Monday, Grassley, who's running for a seventh term this year, showed no signs of backing down. Repeating himself numerous times, sometimes in a stubborn tone, Grassley stressed to voters: Obama has the right to nominate someone, and the GOP-controlled Senate has a right to ignore him.

Pressed about the fact that Obama won a full four years as president in 2012 — and so, in the view of his supporters, should get a Supreme Court justice of his choosing with nearly a year left in his term — Grassley shot back that voters elected a Republican Senate in 2014. The GOP is there to serve as a check and balance to Obama, the senator reasoned.

“We can consent, we can withhold consent, or we can not consent,” Grassley explained to voters at a separate town hall earlier Monday, in Ocheyedan, Iowa. “And so we’re doing our constitutional duty and the president is doing his.”

In Rock Rapids, Grassley insisted that he concluded Scalia’s seat should remain empty independent of any consultation with McConnell. He and the majority leader did not even speak directly until five days after Scalia died, Grassley told the crowd.

Few believe the Supreme Court fracas could cost the popular Grassley his seat. In his 36 years in office, Grassley, known for his annual tour of Iowa's 99 counties, has rarely faced a serious threat to reelection.

Still, Democrat Patty Judge has capitalized on the negative publicity surrounding Grassley’s blockade to mount a challenge against the senator. The former Iowa lieutenant governor has yet to consolidate party support behind her, but her candidacy got a splash of early national publicity as Grassley dug in on the GOP’s high court strategy.

“He will hear from Iowans that they are concerned about what they view as obstruction of the process of Iowa,” Judge said in a phone interview Monday. “That’s what I’m hearing.”

Indeed, Grassley did get an earful from voters on the Supreme Court obstruction at two town halls on Monday, even in this corner of Iowa represented by Rep. Steve King, one of the most conservative members of Congress.

“It’s not fair for this man to not get a hearing,” said Randy Waagmeester, 62, an independent from Rock Rapids: “As a lawyer, the one thing I completely avoid is any politics in the courts system.”

Glenda Schrick of George, the woman who raised the prospect of a Clinton win in November, said after the town hall that even though she's a Republican she believes her party is making a mistake by not holding hearings for Garland.

“I just think that by them not having hearings on this, that they’re shooting themselves in the foot,” said Schrick, 78, who said she has long supported Grassley. “They’re not setting up their reputation very well as Republicans.”

Even so, she said Grassley’s Supreme Court position wouldn’t be enough for her to vote against him this fall.

Grassley also got frequent praise and even applause for holding the line against Garland’s confirmation — underscoring the political backlash the senator would likely face from conservatives should he reverse himself.

In Ocheyedan, Dave Damstrom, 69, of Spencer, Iowa, was starting to chastise Grassley for “so much crap” in the political system and urge the senator to hold confirmation hearings when the Spencer resident was interrupted.

“He’s doing his job and we appreciate it,” a male voice said, triggering a loud round of applause from the three dozen people who attended the town hall in the Osceola County town of 490.

Indeed, conservatives, both in Iowa and nationally, are descending on the state to give Grassley cover.

Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion, activated its Iowa network to shower the senator with praise, including making more than 600 calls to his offices thanking him for opposing a confirmation this year and penning an op-ed in The Des Moines Register, the state’s largest newspaper.

The group is also gathering signatures online for a petition underscoring the anti-abortion movement’s support for Grassley; launching a pro-Grassley letter-to-the-editor campaign this week; and hosting a nationwide webcast next month promoting the senator.

“It’s very clear he’s willing to stand firm, no matter what. I am not worried he will falter,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Nevertheless, he deserves our support … we want there to be no question that the people of Iowa support Sen. Grassley in his stance.”

More than 400 Iowa tea party activists have signed a letter backing up Grassley’s Supreme Court stance. And the conservative Judicial Crisis Network is giving Grassley air cover as part of a $4 million campaign in six states designed to boost Republican senators who want to halt the confirmation process and hurt Democrats who believe Garland’s nomination should proceed.

A poll released March 4 by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found that Grassley, though still above water in his approval rankings, has numbers that are “down considerably from what we usually find for him” because he was losing crossover support from Democrats.

The PPP poll also found that 56 percent of Iowa voters want Scalia’s vacancy to be filled this year, compared with 40 percent who do not. National polls show similar margins.

The Supreme Court issue is sure to follow Grassley around Iowa the rest of this week. He is keeping up a robust recess schedule, with 19 appearances that range from a tour of a rural hospital in Estherville to a question-and-answer session with employees at a manufacturing facility in Spirit Lake. He has another town hall meeting on Tuesday at Northwestern College in Orange City.

Grassley has indicated he is willing to meet privately with Garland, though no more than that. He told POLITICO earlier Monday in Estherville that Garland, the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, is scheduled to call him once the senator returns to Washington next week.